Read the full article by Edward Robinson on Financial Times, beyondbricsLast December, Sonatrach, the state owned Algerian oil and gas monopoly, announced that it would be investing around $100bn in energy infrastructure over the next five years and that Algeria would invest $70bn in shale gas exploration over the next 20 years. This is on top of a recent raft of fiscal incentives aimed at attracting more foreign investment into shale prospecting.

The US Energy Information Administration estimates that Algeria possesses the third largest shale gas reserves in the world (after China and Argentina), so the investment announcement is a significant development for the EU’s third largest supplier of natural gas and is obviously of interest to the European Commission as it prepares to present its energy security strategy in the coming weeks.